Tears greet jailed trucker's return to US

Jabin Akeem Bogan, left, gets a hug from his mother at a press conference Friday. Bogan, a U.S. truck driver, was imprisoned in Mexico after being convicted of ammunition charges in Juarez. (Victor Calzada / El Paso Times)

A wrong turn seven months ago reshaped the life of Jabin Akeem Bogan, a U.S. truck driver who was convicted of ammunition charges in Mexico and sent to prison.

"It changed my life," said Bogan, 27, of Dallas. "But to sum it up to you all is one thing I do know and I am certain -- you keep praying and God will show up."

His prayers were answered on Friday when he returned to the United States and into the safe arms of his family after spending seven months in a Mexican prison.

REPORTER

Lorena Figueroa

He had been expected to arrive on U.S. soil last week, but Mexican immigration authorities held him at a detention center while his immigration status was cleared up and the U.S. Embassy got him a passport, Bogan's lawyers said.

Bogan arrived at Abraham González International Airport in Juárez on a commercial flight and crossed the Bridge of the Americas into El Paso around noon, according to Mexico's immigration agency in Chihuahua.

In a news conference surrounded by his mother, lawyers and local leaders, Bogan maintained his innocence on the ammunition charges and said it was hard to be imprisoned in a foreign country for something he said he didn't do.

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"It's hard to be away from your family for seven months, not get a visit, barely get a phone call and treat you bad," Bogan said, trying to hold back tears.

He did not want to say who mistreated him or why and did not elaborate.

He said he was the only African-American in the prison and felt it "was me against 100 other people."

Bogan was held in a federal maximum security prison in Villa Aldama, Veracruz. He was sent there a couple of days after his arrest on April 17 in Juárez. He was accused of crossing 268,000 rounds of ammunition -- mostly .308 and .223- caliber rounds -- into Juárez inside the container of an 18-wheeler he was driving originally to Phoenix.

He said he took a wrong turn off Loop 375 and accidentally crossed into Mexico through the Bridge of the Americas.

"I thought that I was going to end up in a red light, but I ended up in the border," he said.

When he got to the port of entry, Bogan said, a U.S. agent dressed in blue directed him to cross the border and come back. Bogan was arrested when Mexican customs officials discovered the ammunition.

"From there, everything went upside down," he said.

Bogan was charged with trafficking ammunition, which in Mexico can carry a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.

In August, a federal magistrate court threw out the trafficking charge and charged him with a lesser crime, possession of ammunition.

A month later, a federal judge found Bogan guilty and sentenced him to a fine of about $1,500 and three years of prison, with the possibility of commuting it to supervised release.

Bogan's lawyer in Mexico, Emilio de la Rosa, said that he managed to get his client a sentence of time served for his good conduct in prison, having no criminal history in Mexico and proving that the crime was not made with malice. ÊÊ

He said part of the sentence included the seizure of the ammunition. The truck is still in Mexico, and Bogan's employer, Demco Trans Inc. in Dallas, has to file a motion to get it back.

"We had to fight against many obstacles, but we made it," de la Rosa said.

Immigration lawyer Carlos Spector of El Paso, who represented Bogan's family in the U.S., said Bogan's release is a "historic victory."

"For the first time, a man comes back with his family within months after being imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit," Spector said.

Bogan, who went back to Dallas with his mother, Aletha Smith, said he would like to continue to drive a truck, but he did not discuss his immediate plans.

"I am happy for having my child back," Smith said tearfully. "I never dreamed that something like this could happen to us. I am sorry that things happened the way they did, but God is good."

Lorena Figueroa may be reached at lfigueroa@elpasotimes.com; 546-6129.